Founded in 1943, it had different locations until 1982, when the present site was inaugurated in Ramón y Cajal Street, when Enrique Escudero de Castro was the mayor and the museum takes its name from him. It is located over the late Roman necropolis excavated some years ago. In addition to the necropolis, which is probably the structure that gives most character to the museum, deserves special mention the collection of funerary epigraphy, one of the best in Spain. No less important are the sections of Roman mining, with a varied typology of products, tools and utensils of that time, or the ceramic productions, mainly crockery, which testify to the intense commercial traffic that kept the port from the second century BC. Roman sculpture also has some good examples, among which stands out for its brilliant execution the portrait of a child with a crown, which probably represents a high dignity of the imperial family. The permanent exhibition on the second floor concludes with the areas dedicated to Roman housing and commerce. It was discovered and excavated in 1967. The interest aroused by the discovery led the City Council of Cartagena to consider building a new headquarters for the museum around the site. The project was executed by the architect Pedro Antonio San Martín, then director of the museum, who designed the two floors around the necropolis, as we know it today.
In addition to being very few examples known from this period, the most striking thing about this necropolis is the typological variety of burials it contains, dating from the late fourth or early fifth century AD, and coinciding in time with the introduction of Christianity. In addition to the individual graves, there are tumulus structures with rectangular or semicircular shapes, and two pantheons.
